Lawmaker's bill would temporarily halt charter expansion

AUSTIN {AP} Stella Hinajosa says she believed the promises of a better education a San Antonio charter school promised her little boy.

"My child informed me that he was not learning anything," Hinajosa told members of the House Public Education Committee.

The committee was discussing a bill by Rep. Jim Dunnam that, among other things, calls for a two-year moratorium on new charters schools in Texas. The panel approved the bill late Tuesday night. It now moves to the House.

Charter schools receive taxpayer money but operate independently from local school districts. Last year, the state spent $218 million on 193 charter schools.

Hinajosa's son now attends a traditional public school, but his grades have dropped and his emotional state has suffered, she said. The mother and son attend weekly therapy and tutoring sessions.

"Charter schools need to be accountable for the welfare of our children," Hinajosa said. "You have to stop, step back and really look to see what they're doing wrong now."

That's exactly what the bill by Dunnam, D-Waco, would do.

It proposes halting the issuance of new charters while the state studies the current schools and works to solve problems ranging from financial mismanagement to academic failure.

"We're not on a witch hunt," said Dunnam, who added not all charter schools are doing a poor job. But the bill "is something we need to protect the kids."

The bill paints a negative picture of all charter school operators, said Kyev Tatum, president of the Hill Country NAACP and co-founder of a charter school in San Marcos.

The proposal "sends the wrong message to our communities about charter schools," Tatum said. "It has created an incredible obstacle for us to do business."

"The tone surrounding charter schools is a negative tone and it creates an us- versus-them attitude," he said.

Donna Howard, a former State Board of Education candidate from Austin, said the state must do more to make sure charters are working.

"I'm not suggesting throwing out the baby with the bath water. I am suggesting we look behind that baby's ears to see how successful the bath has been," Howard said.

Backed by then-Gov. George W. Bush, Texas began its charter school experiment in 1995.

There have been success stories, like Houston's KIPP Academy. The Knowledge Is Power Program serves mostly low-income minority students and was recognized during the Republican National Convention as an example of how charters can work well.

But there have been problems as well.

In the past two years, at least seven have closed because of problems ranging from declining attendance to financial mismanagement to embezzlement.

Only 59 percent of charter school students passed a state skills exam in the 1998-99 school year, compared with the state average of 78.4 percent. And this summer, the state education agency gave an "unacceptable" rating to nearly one-fourth of 103 charter schools it studied.

Dunnam's bill also would require teachers to have high school diplomas and charter schools to conduct the same criminal background checks required of traditional public schools.

Also, the State Board of Education would be able to more quickly revoke charters and the Texas Education Agency would be required to provide more up-to-date performance data.